Ex-CSU star Gian Clavell shines in NBA preseason debut

Dallas Mavericks guard Gian Clavell, the Mountain West Player of the Year last season at CSU, drives past Milwaukee's Kendall Marshall during an NBA exhibition game Monday in Dallas.(Photo: Tony Gutierrez/AP)

Gian Clavell just keeps doing what he does best and hopes that’s good enough to fulfill his lifelong dream of playing in the NBA.

The former CSU basketball star had 11 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists in his first NBA exhibition game Monday night with the Dallas Mavericks. He was the team’s second-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder in the 106-104 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. He was 3 of 6 from 3-point range.

He’s one of 20 players on the preseason roster trying to earn a spot on the 15-man regular-season roster or as one of its two designated two-way players assigned to a team in the NBA’s developmental league, now called the G League.

“It’s a blessing, man,” Clavell said Tuesday. "The dream coming true. It hasn’t come true yet; it’s coming true. I have an NBA jersey. I got to play in an NBA game. And I got to do what I do.”

Clavell, 6-foot-4 and 185 pounds, was the Mountain West’s Player of the Year last season at Colorado State University. He averaged a MW-best 20.4 points and 6.3 rebounds a game but was most proud of earning a spot on the league’s five-man all-defensive team.

What he’s able to do on the defensive end, he said, gives him a much better shot at making it in the NBA than relying solely on his scoring and rebounding.

Now, it’s up to Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson and coach Rick Carlisle and his staff. Clavell has five more preseason games, including one Wednesday night against the Chicago Bulls, to show them what he can do.

“There’s nothing to prove,” he said. “… People overthink or think it’s complicated or it’s hard. No, man, it’s really simple. Just be a great teammate and play the defensive end like an animal and knock down wide-open shots.”

NBA teams are limited to 15 players on the regular-season roster but this year can place up to two more on two-way contracts, allowing them to move back and forth from the NBA team to the G League. Only players with less than four years of NBA experience are eligible for two-way contracts, and they’re limited to 45 days at the NBA level under teams of the league’s contract with its players’ union.

Teams wanting to bring a player up longer have to add him to the regular-season roster and sign him to a regular season minimum salary of $815,615 or more. Two-way players earn $75,000 a year while in the G League and pro-rated pay at the NBA minimum for the number of days they spend on the active roster.

The Mavericks only have one other shooting guard on their preseason roster — Seth Curry. But small forward Wesley Matthews can fill that role. The team also is carrying five point guards right now.

Clavell can't worry about that.

“I’m worried about what I can control, and that’s my effort and my attitude,” he said. “It’s the NBA; that’s the dream. And I’m extremely grateful and just happy that I’ve got the opportunity.”

Clavell is from Puerto Rico and wished he could have joined teammate J.J. Berea last week on a trip using the Mavericks’ charter plane to bring supplies to the U.S. territory.

But Berea is an 11-year veteran who could afford to miss the first two days of practice. Clavell couldn’t.

Instead the former CSU star started a GoFundMe page for hurricane relief in his hometown of Caguas, which is still without power or potable water two weeks after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.

A townhome owned by his mother, who lives in Miami, was completely destroyed, he said, and all the windows were blown out of his grandmother’s house, leaving her with no protection from the frequent rain.

His older brother, Gilberto, also lives in Puerto Rico, where he plays professional basketball.

“It’s not looking good for my family or my town,” Clavell said.

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news and listen to him talk CSU sports at 11:35 a.m. Thursdays on KFKA radio (AM 1310).